Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I woke up Sunday morning and decided that I was going to start doing a video series on the basics of getting into 40k in a no nonsense format. The end result was me hastily zip tying a video rig together and trying to get movie maker to sync properly to my camera (it didn't) But I managed to get the above video out, I do plan to re do this once I have had more time to sort out the kinks in my presenter/recording seat up, so I apologize in advance for the quality.

This video is meant more for newbie than long time hobbyists, so if you know what your doing there wont be any surprises in here.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, as I mentioned I plan to do more of these in the future, so if you have any experience doing this sort of thing, or just have a few suggestions hit me up in the comments, or shoot me an email at bayhammer@gmail.com

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

When I was talking about the lore section on the show, I
found it difficult to articulate exactly what it was about this codex that felt
different from its predecessors. After I had a bit more leisure time to sit
down and really go through both books I think I have been able to formulate a
more accurate response to my original thoughts on the background and lore
section. The biggest difference between the new Astra Militarum codex and the
previous IG book is that the formers composition and tone seems to focus more
on the here and the now and the future of the universe, rather than weigh the
reader down with the details of the past. True, there are a fair number of articles in the new
book that are taken from the last codex (there’s entries in the 5th
dex that go all the way back to 3rd) but they compose and preface it
in such a manner that it tends to drive the narrative forward, rather than just
let the details hang in the middle surrounded by the inevitable grim dark
future of emptiness and death that awaits humanity.

It feels like GW has
turned back the clock from two minutes to five, the 13th
black crusade is just now happening, and while the overall theme is still an
empire in decline, they have given themselves a little more wiggle room when it
comes to future editions, and the expanded universe, some aspects of which they
have subtly woven into this new edition. The first couple of pages reads like
the extended version of the back cover of a Black Library novel, there’s a much
heavier focus on narrative in this codex than in 5th and it shows,
in 5th it was more “yeah you command a lot of guys and tanks, so use
a lot of guys and tanks if you want, it’s cool” Whereas this time round they
have such gems as “Squads of desperate men battle impossible odds , with
nothing but faith and courage driving them to hold the line” and prefacing that
section with a paragraph that focuses heavily on the grandiose dehumanizing
scale on which the organization operates. They pulled the campaign map from this edition as well, effectively removing most of those events that were not noted elsewhere from the record, this was an odd move, while it did allude to battles of other non Cadian regiments, it did not really detract much from the main story, it did however show dates that went beyond the new timeline, so rather than re write it they just scrubbed it all together. The real shame in this is that new players will loose that quick and easy glance at the universe that most of us older players have grown accustomed to (I think it is still in the rule book though)

Other than that though, the fluff area is pretty much a copy
paste affair from the last two books, with a few subtle entries removed, or re
shuffled out of the first twenty pages or so. Over all I think GW did a good
job with the codex, there could have been a bit more don to update the
background, and yet again I see the same art work that I have been seeing for
the last ten plus years (now in color!) I think in this edition you are getting
a lot less to build on, a few pictures, no camo scheme guides (in the print
edition anyways) and the same model photos we got from 5th. After
all that though, I can still say I was pleased with this edition and even
though it was very subtle I do like the new emphasis on narrative that the new
codices seem to be leaning towards, and now with the supplements that are
supposedly in the works, we might get to see some of the gaps in this codex
filled in later by future mini dex releases. I do hope that this is the case,
and GW will release some more flavor back into the army, but I’ll reserve my
thoughts on that matter until I get the product in hand, for more thorough
review before lambasting any perceived money grab by GW.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Another week cleared, another batch of minis done. Yet again I found myself painting D's imperial guard (117th, The Inheritors) So I did up a few special weapons teams, and another previously enjoyed lick. I have to say I really enjoyed working on some of the older independent characters/stand in models from this project, there's just something about the older mini's that's really fun to work with, even if they don't have rules anymore, a lot of these guys make great counts as models. Enough with words, time for the fancy stimulating imagery with our snazzy new logo.

Straken was a blast to paint up (buns of steel that model has) I was also very pleased with how the Vostroyan officer (he was supposed to be Chenkov) turned out, I think the reds pair well with the basing. On the Cadian officer I used GW's skin technique for the first time, super simple and done in three layers. Finally, who doesn't lover Schaffer.

Again I found myself trying a new GW endorsed method of painting. Rather than go with my traditional moo cow splotches, I tried their tiger streak approach, much cleaner.

Old school medics, so much fine detail on that model, used the new GW blood and gore technical on the transfusion packs, old RT guardsmen is featured because why not.

My own little slice of paradise.

This week is all about storm troopers (the old ones) so keep an eye out for my follow up post on those guys, oh I also finally broke down and bought an airbrush last weekend, so I expect to regale you all with tales of misfortune and great reward in the area as well in the near future. That's about it for me, oh don't forget to tune in toThe Stuff of Legends next Monday, the next episode (I think) is all about hobby progress and how to get more into the hobby side of the game.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A quick
forward before we get to the good stuff. Originally this article was meant to
be published as one long overview of the new Astra Militarum Codex (imperial
guard) I soon realized that I did not have the time to sit and pour over every
detail in one sitting, and as stated below, this is not a codex review. This is
more of a collection of my personal observations and musings on the new book,
which I will put out as a series of articles focusing on the individual parts
of the book that I was not able (read not fully prepped) to go over on the
podcast. Part one is about the units that were removed in this release.

This
article is the follow up to my last appearance on the Stuff of Legends podcast
where we went over the new Astra Militarum and Tempestus books. Unfortunately,
we did not get to cover everything we wanted to due to the time constraints, so
I wanted to do an extended version to cover some of the items we skipped during
the show.

This is not
going to be an in depth codex overview, there are plenty of other people
covering that, and honestly I am not really that much into the meta aspect of
the game, rather this article will focus mostly on a few key details about some
of the unit changes/removals and changes to the background fluff. This is all
basic stuff with my own personal spin on a few areas of interest.

Starting
off, let have a brief moment of silence for those units who are no longer with
us:

-Sly Marbo.

-Lukas
Bastonne.

-Mogul
Kaimr.

-Kubrik Chenkov.

-Al'rahem.

-Solar
Macharius.

-Every
piece of artillery except the basilisk.

A quick breakdown for why I believe some of these characters
are absent from the latest iteration of the codex starting from the top.

Sly Marbo:

This one actually seems kinda obvious, first off he was a
pretty OP character, now that’s not to Say that there are not plenty of those
still hanging about in other books (elder cough cough) but he was less a man
and more of a strength 8 blast with unlimited range. But I don’t think that’s
the reason he got pulled. The word of the day in 6th edition is
‘supplement’ as in there is a good chance Marbo will be returning to us in one
of them. It has long been rumored that Catachans will be getting their own
book/data sheet after the release of the main guard codex and I still believe
this to be the case, so keep an eye out in the near future as I am sure he will
be popping back up at some point.Side note: His model is still available for purchase on the new GW site, so either selling off the remaining stock, or waiting for an update.

Bastonne:

This guy never really saw a lot of play as an HQ in 5th
ed, sure he had some interesting fluff but for the most part he was just
another upgrade with a few special perks that were not really worth the points,
he also suffers from ‘lack of model” syndrome, so yeah poof!

Mogul Kamir:

Real shame about this one, I can’t say for sure why he’s
gone, I mean you could technically gussiy up any odd rough rider and call him
Kamir, and I will have to check, but I do believe he had a model at one point.
Rough riders are still in the main book so a supplement seems unlikely (maybe a
data sheet with expanded rules) as far as I can tell though he was just one of
those units that fell out of favor, I was actually surprised to see rough
riders at all in this edition, but they do still have that unique flavor about
them, and allow all kinds of fun kitbashes with bikes, so yeah, not sure where
he’s gotten off to.

Chenkov:

I was really bummed he got the axe, though like Marbo I have
a sneaking suspicion he may be coming back in a future supplement and in a
plastic/finecast kit (he was metal and not called Chenkov on the site prior to
the great metal purge) With the new points drop on conscripts he would still be
a solid choice regardless of what faction you were playing, he was a tad
broken, and may have been even more so in 6th, but I also did not
see him on the table that often, so maybe he was shelved due to lack of demand.
While I’ll miss being able to flood the table with an endless tide of bodies,
its not much harder to accomplish the same task with regular conscripts in any
750+ game.

Al'rahem:

The legend
is gone, but the rules live on. Old model, old rules. The new order (order
here) essentially gives any unit a similar ability to his “like the wind” perk.
After handing off that ability to move troops around quickly to any random
command squad/HQ choice there was not much reasonto keep him in the main codex. Still though,
there’s hope for a supplement, or possibly a new sculpt/model (fingers crossed)

Solar
Macharius:

He was dead
and gone by 5th, so he only makes the list on a technicality but
still he got a whole page (no stats just a big piece of fluffly filler) He had
a model and rules prior to 5th though, but I am guessing he got the
rough customer treatment like all the other old fluffy HQs (sans Yarrick and
Strayken) Macharius seems like he would be the one least likely to see a
datasheet/re-release though just based on his recent exclusion from two
consecutive codex’s, who knows, maybe FW will step in on this one.

Update: He does
have page in the Astra book, they just decided to hide it under a heavy dose of
dark printing and pseudo latin that I didn’t catch of the first read through.

Artillery:

Let’s make
this section quick.

Medusa:

Short
range, ok damage, Forgeworld model only.

Griffon:

Replaced by
the Wyvern which is arguably better than its predecessor/cheaper.

Colossus:

Forgeworld
only, small load considering the cost, just take a nova cannon costly.

There is one
thing I want to get out of the way before wrapping up, all these models are
still produced by Forgeworld, and still have current rules to support their use
and inclusion in regular 40k lists. Imperial Armor has been doing a good job of
filling the gaps left by GW’s clumsy economizing over the years. Overall not a
total loss as it is an expensive alternative. There’s a lot of FW friendly
rulings/gamebooks being put out by GW lately, so it would not be to hard to
keep your old models in regular play despite not having an entry in the main
book.

Closing
thoughts on the old and the lost, it happens with every release/update, GW
phases out the older less popular specific characters and units in favor of whatever
the new hotness is that go round I think we’ll see some of these guys back on
the table in the not so distant future, and while a little disheartening to see
some old favorites disappear into the warp, there will always be new hero’s to
captivate the next generation of war gamers who are just coming into the hobby
and will never know the loss of squats, or look longingly at beastmen regiments
in back issues of white dwarf. This is the new school, and we are all now
custodians of the lore prior to this release, so remember to share some of that
wisdom with our newer players whenever possible, you just might be the one who
inspires the next Dave Taylor, or (insert famous mini painter here)

Monday, April 14, 2014

Episode 11 of "The Stuff of Legends" is now live. You can grab it off iTunes or get a direct download from the link below.

This week I joined Chuck, Ian and fellow guard player Bill for an overview of the new Astra Militarum/Tempestus comedies that came out over the last few days/weeks. We also go over Zone Mortalis and what Chuck has been up to behind the scenes for the escalation league.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Good afternoon party people. as you are no doubt aware (would be really hard not to notice) a new Imperial guard codex has been released. Since about 6pm Friday night this has bee my life.

1st rule of 40k club, buy a really big desk.﻿

Thank god for OneNote is all I have to say on that. For the last 24 hours I have been drinking deep from the content hose, and yet again GW has managed to cram as much information as possible into roughly eight pages of solid rules, there's been a lot of minor tweaking with the guard in this release and while there are a few 'new' units, I haven't really found any really serious standouts (I am sure there are internet people willing to tell me otherwise on standby)

So far though this book is shaping up to be really solid, they did a few things to make it a little easier to keep all the rules with in reach and the over all layout shows a lot of the polish that GW has been adding with each 6th ed codex release. Rules wise I think the guard got a lot of buffs to some of the less often used units, but its still to early for me to say anything one way or the other about the book just now. If you want to really know what I think about the new codex you can download the upcoming episode of "The Stuff of Legends" podcast which should be out next week. This will be my second appearance on the show and I am really looking forward to sitting down with Chuck and Ian again to really dig in to both Codex Militarum Tempestus and Astra Militarum.

If your in the San Jose/Cupertino area feel free to come by the shop, my co-conspirators and I will be there all day hobbying and playing games (first weekend of 1k with flyers in the escalation league whoo!) so stop on by :)

Friday, April 11, 2014

Codex Astra Militarum (IG) will soon be upon us, I have directed all my focus into not reading the advance review posts of those who are blessed enough to live in a more advanced time zone. Over the last week or so there have been plenty of leaks though, this far in to a release, rumors and hearsay start to turn into facts, and we have had more than one WD/codex leak, so there wont be a ton of surprises in the stats department, but being the borderline fluffy bunny that I am, its the changes in the background/canon that interest me the most with every update. With some new units (read previous forgeworld units) and a big refresh on plastics (ogryns, commissar and storm troopers) I am quite curious to see if the clock is moving forward or back, like how they did with the CSM books. Lately it would seem that GW's over all plan is to erase 1996-2007 and put everyone back at exactly 10,000 years and 28 days after the heresy, also despite the Damocles campaign still happening, the whole 'let's purge the xenos menace' thing never happened with the space fish, and everyone is best bro's now.

Bellyaching aside, I am always excited when its codex release time, and all though GW has been going with a quantitate approach to their release schedule, I have yet to see a codex/army re-release that was not of decent quality, the scions were slow to warm my heart, but after actually getting to see them in the plastic I have actually grown to like the kit a bit more (there is a quad of them now sitting prominently on my hobby stack) I am swinging by Legends tonight to pick up my copy of the new sets and maybe some other bits of kit I feel necessary to my existence, and this Sunday the guys over at The Stuff of Legends podcast will be going over both the Tempestus and Militarum books on the show(check them out here)

Oh, one more quick teaser from one of my more ambitious upcoming projects.

I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised when I unveil the finished product :P

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Just when I think I am out, they pull me back in, or rather D asked me to do a bit more work on his guard, so the sentinels are on the back burner for now. Last night I managed to do up a quick basilisk, again this was a second hand piece (didn't bother stopping it this time) from another players guard army (which I also painted) and I didn't bother to soak it since I figured to top layer was light enough to just prime over. The decision to experiment with the cracked earth basing paint did not pan out and I had to re prime/paint the bottom half of the side panels, a good lesson learned there, the GW technicals really helped me out this time around though I think that I am finding my balance with applying just the right amount of weathering to the metal bits, even if my free hand camo still needs a bit of work.

Quick side note:
You can also see the brand new 'Bay Hammer' logo, after several iterations and a few nights spent in Photoshop I have created a design I am finally happy with, t-shirts and bumper stickers to follow shortly.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

I am famous!, well internet famous, well not really, as I have only been on one episode of the show so far. That doesn't matter though, bring on the teacup Pomeranians and stretch limos!

Getting back to reality, last Sunday I got the chance to sit down with Chuck, Ian and Tyler over at 'The Stuff of Legends' podcast, I'll include I link at the bottom of this post to the iTunes page (if you like the show let them know it with ratings/feedback) Chuck and Ian have put together a great show over such a short period, and while its still fairly new and most of the episodes run at just about an hour I can defiantly see the program growing in the not to distant future, especially with the way the war gaming group over at Legends keeps expanding these days. After the demise of the short lived Bay Hammer radio it really feels great to see someone else with a real passion for the hobby pick up the torch and keep the dream alive.

You can check out the show on iTunes, if you don't feel like going through iTunes there is also a direct download link as well.

In this episode we discussed the escalation league at legends, Zone Mortalis, and geek out over some of the new IG (Astra Militerrarium) kits I also talk about miniature photography, and the upcoming weekend workshop on light boxing your minis(full details here) and Ian and I get to reminisce about good times.

So a few interesting bits to walk away with from this one, looks like battle forces are done with, now we get defense forces or other similarly themed box sets(again not a shocker as they have already done this with other armies) Looks like the rumors about a plastic commissar are playing out (god help them if its finecast) Bullgryns are a little pricey, but for the supposed punch they pack it might be well worth it, and you probably are getting 4-5 per box. Hammer of Cádia is more than likely another mega force full of bullgryn, scions and plane Jane guard with tanks and chimeras. Everything looks pretty par for the course and in line with GW's latest release scheme, I am a little intrigued by the new commissar blister, as so far its the only model that hasn't seen much face time, customization options out of the box would be nice, but we shall see.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Everything this week so far has been gear towards my upcoming Zone Mortalis throw down with D, which promises to either be a match up for the ages, or a quiet game in which two gentlemen trade jests over the others intimate nocturnal proclivities with livestock. Either way I am super pumped to finally get to play a ZM game for the first time, and really my first 40k game in the better part of a year (watching YouTube tutorials to brush up as I write this) I got a fair amount of stuff done this week, so bear with me while I itemize everything below.

First up is the sentinels, a couple of days ago I posted up a quick shot of the three that I actually managed to get painted. Here are the rest of the horde, all of which are now primed and ready for painting (did I mention a good part of my week was spent hovering over a bucket of simple green swill)

Thursday It got cold again, so my model priming efforts were shut down effectively for the evening, though I did manage to get these two guys done up for Sundays game (I also found out I was a bit short on special weapons squads, so I also put in a sizable bitz order on Ebay (more on that later) I do enjoy coming up with new ways to paint plasma effects but its still a pain to find one that looks right.

Today was a good day for hobby progress since the pin vice set I ordered off Amazon arrived this afternoon and I was able to drill out some of the gun barrels on my Contra Catachans (now known as Rick & Steve) which I also managed to get done up in decent time.

I will say for $6 they are not bad, they have none of the polish that a dedicated hobby vise does and they were literally covered in grease when they arrived, but for the money they do a decent job, but they were clearly meant to be shop tools and they are not as precise as a GW/Xacto/Tamiya option, still though, hard to beat that $6 price tag.

Tetanus included in every bag!﻿

﻿

﻿

Sgt. Steve

Spc. Rick

That's about it for me this week hobby wise, I expect to get a ton of pics from my ZM game tomorrow so keep an eye for that post in the near future, hopefully I'll start playing more games in general going forward, especially with the new guard codex dropping next week(you probably won't see me for a few days after that) Over all though its been a productive week, and I got to clear a few things off of my Trello.

Cheers

-Scott
BH Senior Dance Commander

P.S.
Almost forgot to mention, I will be making a guest appearance on the Stuff of Legends podcast Sunday, we are going to be talking about photography, and how you can use in the hobby and other fun topics. They don't have a dedicated landing page for the podcast, but I will post a link once its released.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Update: Well GW beat me to the punch on this one, oh well they still look quite pretty.

A fair number of quick snapshots of the new IG tank (read: Hydra and hydra sans barrels) have been floating around already, so enjoy a slightly higher resolution offering. I really like the new plastic hydra kit, but I think they could have done more then just taking the barrels off and calling it an SPG. Over all though the quality and design are top notch and I can't wait till these kits are released next week.

On a gaming note, Zone Mortalis this weekend! Expect lots of pics and bro fitting in the very near future.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Spent a few hours working on getting the first batch of sentinels done up in the new "jungle funge" style. After a bit of touching in Photoshop its a little harder to tell, but the greens are a little more muted then they appear, and it really helps make the highlights stand out a bit more prominently under normal lighting conditions, which I am still 50/50 on weather I really like that effect, but again those GW technical's really pull their weight when it comes to detailing.

I apologize in advance for the rough quality, it was around midnight when I finally got these guys in the light box. Tonight I m going to work on some melta guardsmen, but I wanted to get the flamer sentinel done up before my mortalis game with D this Sunday over at Legends and I had the multi laser sitting all done up and ready from the previous night, so I managed to bust out the duce.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Yesterday delivered un to me yet another evening of flash monsoons that obliterated any chance of re spraying more of the knightmere force. So with some lack of enthusiasm I returned to the scrub bucket to finish stripping some of the few remaining sentinels that needed a good cleaning, and as you can see above, enjoy a good cup of hot chocolate to help balance out the acrid sweet gut punching sent of industrial solvents.

After giving the walker family a good scrubbing (to the tune of the overlords in the background) I felt to sapped to getting any serious painting done, so en-lue of awesome mini shots, please enjoy the above high res shot of the deep dark green pit of cleansing I spent two hours hovering over last night.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Sunday May 18th I will be hosting a hobby workshop at Legends comics & Games in Cupertino CA, focused on doing light box photography for beginners. The workshop will be 45 minutes to an hour and is free to attend, though space may be limited depending on how many people we get to RSVP , so I highly recommend sending us an email at bayhammer@gmail.com to check in advance what the turnout is going to look like as we get closer to the 18th.

These are the areas I will be going over:

-What & why

-Lighting.

-Setting up your camera.

-Shooting and backgrounds.

-Editing your photos.

-Commercial vs. DIY.

As an added bonus everyone who attends will get a chance to win their own fold up light box courtesy of Bay Hammer!

There are no required materials for this workshop, but it is recommended that you bring a note pad or tablet to take down notes for your own benefit, I also recommend brining the camera you plan on using and the manual, or a print out of the manual for it if you have one and want to learn about the functions of your specific device. After the workshop I will be available to answer questions, provide advice or help attendees with setting up your camera.

So if your free that weekend and live in the south bay/San Jose area feel free to shoot me an email or join theLegends Warhammer group on Facebook for updates or to RSVP under the events section.

I would love to do more of these types of events, so depending on how much interest we get in the event I may plan more down the line, and open up suggestions for future workshops and events.